Zhijian Chen
Zhijian "James" Chen (born January 1966 in a village in Anxi (Quanzhou) ) is a Sino-American biochemist and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center .
Chen graduated from Fujian Normal University with a bachelor's degree in biology in 1985 and from the State University of New York at Buffalo , where he received his doctorate in biochemistry in 1991. As a post-doctoral student he was at the Salk Institute . He did research for Baxter Healthcare in Irvine, California and the biotechnology company ProScript in Cambridge, Massachusetts (which worked on therapy with the cancer chemotherapy drug bortezomib (Velcade)). It was there that his research on ubiquitin began (with Tom Maniatis ). From 1997 he continued his research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is the George L. MacGregor Professor of Biochemistry and a researcher for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute .
He deals with signaling pathways and signal molecules, for example in the innate immune response . He discovered one of the functions of ubiquitin (activation of protein kinases for the NF-κB signaling pathway and the MAP kinase pathway ), the mitochondrial antivirus signaling protein MAVS (Mitochondrial Anti-Viral Signaling protein) and the role of mitochondria in the innate immune response, cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAMP synthase, cGAS) as a cytosolic DNA sensor and a new signaling pathway of the innate immune system via the second messenger cyclic guanosine monophosphate-adenosine monophosphate (cyclic GMP-AMP, cGAMP). The latter substances are part of a defense mechanism of the innate immune system newly discovered by Chen, in which DNA is detected outside the cell nucleus (signs of viral diseases or tumors), which triggers inflammatory reactions.
For 2019 he received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences . He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received the NAS Award in Molecular Biology in 2012 , the Merck Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) in 2015 and the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences in 2018 .
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chen, Zhijian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Chen, James |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Sino-American biochemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1966 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Anxi (Quanzhou) |